Bio

Michele Kloeppel is Co-Chair of the Firm's Corporate and Securities Practice Group and serves on the Firm's Management Committee. She acts as a key corporate securities and compliance advisor to public and private companies. A former in-house attorney, she keenly understands the pressures facing general counsel and their executives, and provides practical, succinct advice on a range of corporate and transactional matters. Michele draws on her extensive regulatory experience to advise companies on SEC reporting matters and critical boardroom issues, including governance trends, exchange listing requirements, disclosure issues, risk management, policy guidelines, and executive compensation. She helps companies define or modify board and committee roles, and actively monitors regulatory issues to ensure companies see their full risk profile and act on items that need their immediate attention. On both the buy and sell side, Michele has represented public and private companies in mergers and acquisitions ranging from $15 million to $600 million. She has also successfully facilitated the resolution of disputes involving minority and majority equity holders. As part of her responsive, day-to-day advice on general corporate matters, Michele crafts and negotiates complex agreements of all kinds, including those involving employment and separation, supply and distribution, vendors, strategic alliances, licenses, sponsorships and consulting relationships. Michele spent more than a decade as corporate counsel to a national restaurant chain, where she led franchise acquisitions and companywide risk analysis, and learned first-hand the value of outside counsel who communicate clearly and provide "can-do" advice to help clients achieve their business objectives.